Jalal Talabani: From Kurdish rights leader to Iraqi president

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BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) As a Kurd in Iraq's disputed north, Jalal Talabani
spent a lifetime resisting Arab domination. Now he will lead one of the
largest and potentially wealthiest Arab nations.

After his election Wednesday as Iraq's interim president, the
71-year-old Talabani was conciliatory and reached out to his Arab
neighbors.

''Our new Iraq ... is looking forward to having balanced relations with
its neighbors in the Arab and Islamic worlds,'' he said.

But a former rebel who once took up arms against ousted dictator Saddam
Hussein, Talabani is still expected to take his battle for Kurdish
rights from the green, rolling hills of the Kurdish north to the
heavily fortified Green Zone of Baghdad.

One of his biggest challenges will be Kirkuk, an oil-rich city 180
miles north of Baghdad that the Kurds want to incorporate into their
self-governing region. The future of the disputed city is expected to
be decided as lawmakers draft a final constitution by Aug. 15.

In the coming weeks, Talabani will also oversee the return of Kurds displaced by ousted leader Saddam Hussein.

After his election Wednesday, Talabani's posters were plastered on cars
and residents broke into celebratory dances in the streets of Kirkuk
and the Kurdish-run region in the north.

''Today Jalal Talabani made it to the seat of power, while Saddam
Hussein is sitting in jail,'' said Mohammed Saleh, a 42-year-old Kurd
in Kirkuk. ''Who would have thought?''

In Baghdad, three of Talabani's relatives attended his election in
parliament, applauding and near tears as the results were announced.

''He deserves it,'' said Laylooz Ibrahim Ahmed, Talabani's
sister-in-law. ''He has been struggling his whole life. I'm more than
happy for him. I cannot even express how happy I am.''

Despite his lifetime of working for Kurdish rights, Talabani promised
to govern for all Iraqis ''freed from the most horrific dictatorship.''

He was greeted by a standing ovation, and he threw his hands in the air and clenched his fists together in a sign of unity.

Born in 1933 in the village of Kelkan, Talabani began his lifetime of
activism as a teenager, joining the Kurdish Democratic Party. He began
studying law but had to go into hiding in 1956 to escape arrest for his
political activities as founder and secretary general of the Kurdistan
Student Union.

He eventually returned to law school and worked as an editor of two
Kurdish publications. After graduating in 1959, he was called to
military duty in the Iraqi army, serving as commander of a tank unit.

When the Kurdish north took up arms against the government in 1961, he
led battles at home in Iraq as well as diplomatic missions to Europe
and the Middle East to seek support for the Kurdish population.

With the collapse of the Kurdish revolt in 1975, he founded the
Patriotic Union of Kurdistan, an effort to redefine the political
movement. He then led armed resistance against Saddam until 1988, when
the Iraqi leader expelled Kurds from strategic areas in the north and
gassed Kurdish towns near the Iranian border, killing tens of thousands
of people.

After the 1991 Gulf War, the Kurdish regions protected by U.S. planes
that enforced a no-fly zones enjoyed autonomy from the government in
Baghdad. But Talabani and Kurdish Democratic Party leader Massoud
Barzani began fighting over control of the north.

A U.S.-sponsored truce was signed in 1998 and the two formed a Kurdish
alliance for the historic Jan. 30 elections, winning 75 seats in the
275-member parliament. Talabani's PUK worked with the CIA in the months
before the March 2003 invasion.